He is a maths professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a head injury 17 years ago, he has lived with only 80 minutes of short-term memory. She is a housekeeper with a ten-year-old son, who is entrusted to take care of him. Each morning, as they are reintroduced to one another, a strange relationship blossoms between them. He is a brilliant maths Professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.Each morning, the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to one another. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant mathematical equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles - based on her shoe size or her birthday - and the numbers reveal a poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her son.With each new equation, the three lost souls forge an affection more mysterious than imaginary numbers, and a bond that runs deeper than memory.'This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water...Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen' New York TimesVINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.